A frontline presidential hopeful in 2023, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, has declared to change the nation’s narrative by running it as company where every shareholder is given sense of belongings and equitable return.
He vowed to change the current negative narrative of the country and create a nation that works, brings peace where everybody is rewarded according to his or her participation and contribution.
This is even as he kicked against sudden suggestions of abolishing rotational presidency between the North and the South.
Mazi Ohuabunwa who is the former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and the Convener of the New Nigeria Group (NNG) gave these assurances while interacting with Journalists in Abuja on his bid for the President of Nigeria under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) come 2023.
According to Ohuabunwa, “My mission is to bequeath a new Nigeria, that will be a first world nation, work for all and a Nigeria where the North, South, East and West, the middle belt, South South, the minority and majority groups will have a sense of equity and belonging.
“We will run Nigeria like a company where every shareholder has equitable return on his investment, where every shareholder is taken as an important member of the company, where decisions will not be taken against any shareholder, and shareholders have voices at Annual General meeting; they can remove the Chairman or the directors.
“We will run the country like where there is corporate governance, corporate governance that establishes a proper working system that brings peace within the organisation from the board of directors to management, staff, to the shareholders and consumers. Everybody’s role is recognized and everybody is rewarded for their own participation and contribution.
“So, that is the country we want to come and run because we are tired of running a country that’s sub-optimum, a country that ought to be at the same level with the rest of its mates, those that it is counted at the same economic level in the 50s and 60s; countries like the Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, China and India.
“Nigeria was regarded as a third world country along with them but many of them now have become either emerging nations or industrialized nations. I’ve come to change the narrative, to create a country that works for everybody and where we will feel as part of the nation just as you were in a company.”
On zoning of presidency, he maintained that it is important the zoning system be sustained until every part of the country has the opportunity of producing the President of the nation.
He explained that if every zone have had the opportunity of producing the President of the Country, Nigerians may then decide that they contestant zoning again and adopt a new system.
He said: “It is not when it is your turn, you said it is your turn; but when it is another person’s turn, you start preaching we should stop zoning. It cannot be done unilaterally, we all have to agree. For example, PDP has in their constitution, rotational of power, moving it between North and South. How can they come in the middle of the day and tell you stories?.
On the measures to curb insecurity, Mazi Ohuabunwa noted that insecurity in Nigeria has causative reasons, adding that the best way to combat it is to eliminate the causes by creating jobs, investing in intelligence, technology, security operatives, ensuring that justice reigns in the country, among other solutions.
Further, he noted that the major cause of corruption is poverty and greed, adding that his governance will deal with corruption holistically by ensuring that everyone has sure means of livelihood, the educational program reviewed for every student to have at least two business plans before graduation from tertiary institutions.
